Join the Democrats Abroad Global Black Caucus (GBC) Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Team - Helping to Achieve High Record-Breaking Voter Turnout in the US 2020 Elections.

Our goal is to reach every African American living outside of the US and Allies who are not current members of Democrats Abroad. We will help them register to vote and request their absentee ballots via votefromabroad.org and encourage them to return their ballots for the November 2020 elections.

We will encourage them to become active members of Democrats Abroad.

We will encourage them to perform GOTV efforts within their communities, networks, and alliances in the US.

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/Dp7xP1FUJXcMmHLd8

Right now Democrats Abroad- Global Black Caucus is ramping up our voter registration and get out the vote efforts as we get closer to November. We want to make sure that every African American and ally living abroad has the opportunity to vote, and we need your help!

We are asking Americans living abroad to sign up to help us make GOTV videos to share on our social media channels. We also need people who would love to have conversations with us on Facebook Live about voting as an American living overseas.  If you are interested, please sign-up here and we will send you further instructions: https://forms.gle/Cxvz2sntmeva36A29

Join us and find out information to help you with your tax issues.

This will be an informal Zoom call, you can drop-in for 5 minutes to ask one question or stick around for the whole hour.

Some things that will be discussed include:

• Have you received your CARES Act stimulus payment? If so, how? If not, why?
• The latest updates on Residency Based Taxation.
• Why you have nothing to worry about when it comes to voting and taxes!

July 15th is also the new deadline to file your US taxes with the IRS this year (usually it's June 15th for Americans living abroad but the US government extended it this year due to Coronavirus.)

Please RSVP to receive the Zoom Link.

We hope to see you there!

We look forward to talking with you about this difficult subject.

A Conversation with Horace Small
and the Diversity Caucus of DA France
and the Global Black Caucus

Horace Small is Executive Director of Union of Minority Neighborhoods, and a legendary organizer/activist (and personality!) in the Boston area for decades who famously made then-governor Mitt Romney take back his plan to scrap the office of affirmative action for the state. 

“UMN is rewriting the rules of black politics in Massachusetts, mobilizing some of the state’s poorest citizens to push for their share of the pie. They work for equity, not just equality.” – Boston Magazine.

Today, UNM runs the Black Ballot Power initiative — a non-partisan national campaign to increase Black voter turnout focusing on critical areas of the country.

Why Not Voting Must Not Be an Option!

• In 2016, nearly half of all eligible voters (46.9%) did NOT vote — over 108,000,000 people
• Half of all non-voters were non-white
• Two-thirds were under age 50
• One-quarter earned less than $30,000 a year.

Black Ballot Power Initiative Will

• Convince non-voting Blacks that their vote matters
• Get them registered and to the polls

Join this call with DA France's Diversity Caucus and DA's Global Black Caucus to hear from Horace Small about his work with UMN in Boston, his long and storied career in community organizing and working with neighborhoods, and how he and other community activists and organizers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and New York are working to help make sure the black vote turns out and is counted. 

While there is no donation requirement to attend, we hope you’ll consider a donation of $5 or $10 to help Democrats Abroad reach hundreds of thousands of Democratic voters abroad. Thank you for your support!

The following NAACP scholarships are now open:

1-   The Agnes Jones Jackson Scholarship

• Applicant must be a current member of the NAACP
• Scholarship amount: twenty (20) to forty (40) scholarships available. Maximum scholarship amount is $2,000.00.

2-   The Hubertus W.V. Willems Scholarship for male students

• Applicant must be a male majoring in one of the following fields: Engineering, Chemistry, Physics or Mathematical Sciences.
• NAACP membership and participation are highly desirable.
• Scholarship amount: twenty (20) to forty (40) Scholarships available.
• Maximum scholarship award is $3,000.00.

3-   The James Weldon Johnson Scholarship of the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity

• Applicant must compose a 500-750 word essay that addresses how the life and legacy of James Weldon Johnson has impacted them, OR
• Compose a 500 – 750-word analysis of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”,
• Scholarship amount: seven (7) scholarships worth $3,000 each, available annually.
• One (1) recipient per NAACP region

This poem was written for Juneteenth 2020

This webinar is apart of our summer series "Fighting White Supremacy."

In his talk “On the Strategic Value of U.S. Reparations,” Antar Keith will provide a brief overview of the history of reparations, including an outline of other forms of reparations and redress extended to minority groups during the 20^th century. Antar will debunk common myths and stereotypes surrounding U.S. reparations for African Americans and demonstrate how reparations would directly target the triple evils of police brutality, mass incarceration, and voter suppression. After illustrating the necessity of reparations, Antar will focus on the next steps in developing such a policy. Ultimately, Antar argues that extending reparations to African Americans is not only a moral imperative; doing so would also be of strategic value for the U.S. Democratic Party, whose voting bloc is considerably reduced by structural inequities which suppress and disenfranchise Black voters. In order to win elections, the Democratic Party must transform itself to meet the rising challenges of a 21st-century Republican Party under Trump and a growing cadre of sympathetic followers at all levels of government and society. Providing reparations to African Americans is a crucial means of ensuring long-term Democratic electoral success.

Ticket cost: While there is no donation required to attend, we hope you’ll consider a donation of $10 - or more - and help reach hundreds of potential voters!  Even if you can't join the Webinar, you can show your support by clicking HERE and making a donation for this event. 

Bio:

Born to a working-class family in the Bronx, New York, Antar Rashiq Keith has firsthand knowledge of structural discrimination in the United States. Antar pursued his B.A. in Adolescent Education in English Literature and M.A. in National and Transnational Studies before settling in his current residence of Leipzig, Germany. With over ten years’ experience as an educator in inner-city regions of the United States and Germany, Antar enjoys fostering stronger transnational ties between U.S. and German youth, working professionals, and active NATO military within the German Department of Defense. His job is to facilitate bridges between cultures, and this is exactly what he hopes to accomplish for African Americans and working-class voters in Democrats Abroad.

Antar’s political consciousness was molded from an early age by a family with ties to activism in the face of stark structural inequity. His father, William “Bill” Keith, a poet, teacher, Civil Rights activist, and Black Arts Movement avant-garde artist, was also a two-time victim of predatory policing, the broken justice system, and mass incarceration. Antar’s mother, Iseult Keith, PhD, worked as a social worker in New York State’s Sing Sing prison, providing guidance and counseling to the incarcerated. Bill and Iseult’s son, Antar, aims to build on their legacy through progressive action on the policy level. His previous and current activities include participating in efforts to expand voter participation; leading discussions on racism, sexism, and homophobia for the German military; and lobbying for anti-racist policies within German institutions of higher education. He is now dedicated to taking this fight to the triple evils of U.S. police brutality, mass incarceration, and voter suppression.

Please RSVP to receive the Zoom Link.

Note: This event has been rescheduled from Tuesday, June 30, 2020!

Many of us have watched videos of police officers attacking peaceful protesters at recent Black Lives Matter protests in shock and consternation. How can we understand this police violence? And what can local communities and voters, including voters abroad, do to counteract this problem?
 
Join us for a lecture and discussion with Tory Mallet, PhD candidate in sociology at the London School of Economics, with expertise in political sociology and policing. Her master's thesis, "The Thick Blue Line: A Police-Centered Analysis of Violent Encounters Between Occupy Protesters and Police Officers in the United States", examined police violence against protesters with the Occupy movement. She will give a talk about what we know about police violence against protesters, and then lead a discussion of how we see this dynamic today with BLM protests and what we can do about it.
 
Please email Tory at basel@democrats.ch to receive the Zoom information.

Add to your Google Calendar.

Join the GBC as we talk with Dr. Nicole Hirschfelder about Black Lives Matter and the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 has affected the USA as a whole on various levels in ways that were previously unimaginable. Yet, in this relatively 'slow catastrophe', it became apparent early on that so-called ethnic minorities and women would be the main victims of the situation. Especially the black community, which had already initiated debates about anti-black violence and the value of black lives through networks such as the Black Lives Matter Movement long before the pandemic hit, now finds itself confronted with additional existential dimensions of this issue.

This webinar will, therefore, focus on the situation of the black community in the USA during the crisis and also reflect on the current effects of COVID-19, widely publicized cases of police brutality inflicted upon George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery that led to worldwide protests. While the historical experience of the black community with regard to the healthcare system will be taken into account in order to explain its particular vulnerability during the pandemic, the webinar will also address the fact that both Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter mass protests emphasize the urgency of structural reforms in the USA.

Dr. Nicole Hirschfelder (American Studies, University of Tübingen) has written her dissertation on the Civil Rights activist and organizer Bayard Rustin and has conducted research, presented, and published on the Black Lives Matter movement since 2015. Due to COVID-19, she spent several months in New York City. As a white, German, female scholar, Nicole strives to critically reflect on her position and to initiate discussions about race relations and various forms of structural violence in Germany and the US.

Please join us for what should be an informative and enlightening event. RSVP to receive the connection information.

Ticket cost: While there is no donation required to attend, we hope you’ll consider a donation of $10 - or more - and help reach hundreds of potential voters!  Even if you can't join the Webinar, you can show your support by clicking HERE and making a donation for this event.